DISEG SEMINAR SERIES

Wednesday, October 24th, 9.00 am

Politecnico di Torino, Aula Albenga

Punching of reinforced concrete slabs: from a

mechanical model to code expressions
Prof. Aurelio Muttoni
School of Architecture Civil and Environmental Engineering, Lausanne
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

Abstract: Research on punching shear is crucial, as it often controls the choice of the plate thickness in the design of
flat slabs. Furthermore, the consequences of a punching failure are catastrophic, as demonstrated by several accidents.
An important experimental research has been performed by the Structural Concrete Laboratory of EPFL, with more
than 200 punching tests on full-size specimens since the year 2000. A mechanical model, the Critical Shear Crack
Theory, has been developed. Initially applicable to symmetrical cases for slabs without transverse reinforcement, it has
been expanded since and gives excellent results for all kinds of practical cases: slabs with transverse reinforcement,
edge and corner columns, prestressed and post-tensioned slabs, fibre-reinforced concrete, strengthening of slabs and
others. Consequently, this model has been adopted by the Swiss Concrete Code SIA 262 (2003 and 2013), by the fib
Model-Code 2010 and represents the basis of the new punching shear provisions for the 2nd generation of Eurocode 2.

Bio: Aurelio Muttoni is a full Professor and Head of the Structural Concrete Laboratory at the École Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland). He received his diploma and PhD in civil engineering from the Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland, in 1982 and 1989, respectively. His current teaching activities focus on
the conceptual design of structures, theory and dimensioning of concrete structures as well as bridge design. His
research group is active in the following domains: behaviour and design methods for structural concrete, conceptual
design of innovative structures, shear in structural concrete, punching shear of slabs, nonlinear structural analysis
including its reliability, bond between steel and concrete, aggregate interlocking, fatigue and influence of sustained
loading on the concrete strength, mechanical behaviour and design concepts for ultra-high performance concrete and
textile concrete.

Aurelio Muttoni was the recipient of the ACI Chester Paul Siess Award for Excellence in Structural Research in 2010
and the co-recipient of the Wason Medal for Most Meritorious Paper in 2014. He is a member of the Presidium of fib
(International Federation for Structural Concrete), several fib commissions and task groups and is Project Team Leader
for the second generation of EN 1992-1-1 (Eurocode for structural concrete).

Coordinators: M. Corrado, G. Musso, F. Tondolo and M. Zerbinatti